I silenzi della letteratura

Pluralità, resistenza, stile

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to explore a paradox of contemporary literature: its expression through a mute language. This theoretical knot emerges in authors such as Benjamin, Adorno, Blanchot, Foucault, and Rancière. The investigation articulates on multiple levels: the renunciation of the word (from von Hofmannsthal to Bartleby), where silence becomes the fulfillment of the work; the impossibility of writing (Beckett, Bernhard), with constitutively unfinished works; the historical-social dimension, in which silence assumes a critical and resistant function. Literature resists by apprpriating an eloquent silence against the censoring silence of power. Finally, style as a practice that leads language to its limit: according to Deleuze, great writers create a ‘foreign language within language’, bringing language toward the Outside, toward silence. Through this art of silence, literature gives voice to those who have no voice.